10 Dumbest Things to Eat

This was a difficult list to put together, only because there were so many more foods I wanted to add. Pretty much 90% or more of what you find in a supermarket isn’t actually “food” and therefore should be included on the dumbest foods list, but I tried to form a good general list to get you started. These are the foods that make me cringe when I see people eating them…especially pregnant women or children.

Even if corn syrup and cane sugar are “the same” (as the Corn Refiner’s Association is trying so desperately to make you believe, even though it is an absolute lie- http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/11/13/corn-syrup-s-new-disguise.aspx), Americans have chosen to replace drinking water with sugar-loaded commercial soft drinks that act like poison elixirs- decaying the body as they are consumed en mass. Americans are washing down their daily meals with concentrated high-fructose corn syrup without any thought to how much damage they could actually be doing to their bodies.

We aren’t against a nice, old fashioned, artisan soda pop as a treat every now and then, but water should be what we drink when we are thirsty, otherwise we are working against our body’s cries for hydration.

Excessive sugar intake is indicated in most modern degenerative diseases, and is probably one of the greatest culprits of the obesity and preventable diseases plaguing our culture. We suck down sugar in the form of soft drinks more than any other beverage. According to US News and World Reports, in 1967, Americans ate 114 pounds of sugar and sweeteners a year per capita, nearly all of it as either raw or refined sugar. In 2003, each person consumed about 142 pounds of sugar per year…and that report is over a decade old! Since high-fructose corn syrup was developed more than 30 years ago, consumption of the sweetener, which flavors everything from soda pop to ranch dressing, has skyrocketed. Now Americans each down about 61 pounds a year of corn syrup alone. Since 1950, soft-drink consumption per capita has quadrupled, from about 11 gallons per year to about 46 gallons in 2003–nearly a gallon a week per person.” (http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/articles/050328/28sugar.b.htm) In addition, the phosphoric acid used to carbonate soft drinks breaks down the mineral absorption process, necessary for most functions within the body, especially those pertaining to bone health and digestion. What is absolutely despicable is that children are irresponsibly being served these death drinks every day- before they can even walk. There is no benefit to commercial soft drinks and regular consumption can be dangerous.

Do you know what hydrogenated oil is? “The process of partial hydrogenation produces trans fats by straightening out the unsaturated molecules through rearrangement of the hydrogen atoms at the position of the double bond. These altered fats are solid at room temperature and so can be used in commercial baked goods and for frying. Trans fatty acids have been increasingly implicated as contributing to cancer, heart disease, auto-immune disease, tendon and bone degeneration and problems with fertility and growth. Trans fatty acids in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are the main cause of type 2 diabetes, characterized by high levels of both insulin and glucose in the blood, because they inhibit the insulin receptors in the cell membranes.” (http://www.westonaprice.org/know-your-fats/556-interesterification.html) Butter is better!

If you are like most Americans, you have been brainwashed into believing that saturated fat is bad and vegetable oil is the good choice. Well, I’m sorry to tell you that this is an absolute myth. It is true that heart disease, diabetes, and other inflammatory diseases are probably caused in part by fat consumption, but not the fat that you’re thinking of. Unfortunately, it is the fats Americans have been droned into believing are “heart healthy” that are destroying this vital blood pumping muscle. The inflammatory process in the body relies on a balance of fatty acids- some inflammatory, some anti-inflammatory. (We actually want the ability to inflame sometimes in order to keep balance and fight disease.) Because of America’s obsession with the anti-saturated-fat myth, we have inundated ourselves with these refined unsaturated vegetable oils (mostly via salad dressings and baked goods), which are often rancid from processing and responsible for an excessive amount of omega-6 fatty acids in the body, which puts these bodies in a highly inflammatory state. “Recent research has revealed that too much omega-6 in the diet creates an imbalance that can interfere with production of important prostaglandins. This disruption can result in increased tendency to form blood clots, inflammation, high blood pressure, irritation of the digestive tract, depressed immune function, sterility, cell proliferation, cancer and weight gain”(1). To learn more about this whole fat myth thing, visit: http://www.westonaprice.org/know-your-fats/526-skinny-on-fats.html

5. Soy Milk, Soy Formula, Soy Protein, Soy…

Oh boy, here we go. Shame on you American industry for deciding to take a cheap plant that is barely edible and can barely be digested by the body, processing it, and selling the bi-products of it to your citizens as a “health food”- and, even worse, as an option for feeding babies!!! Listen people, soy food is poisonous unless it is consumed after a long fermenting process, and even then should be consumed in moderation. Modern soy products like soy milk, soy formula, soy proteins, etc., are laden with phyto-estrogens, mineral blocking phytic acid, and harmful enzymes that destroy the digestive tract. Phyto-estrogens are compounds that the body reads as estrogen…so men, drink soy milk if you want boobs! I personally believe that the rise in hormone-related cancers, strange puberty ages and rates, infertility, thyroid problems, severe acne, and other modern human diseases are caused in part by the highly successful marketing campaign to sell soy as a health food. In addition, I believe soy formula for infants should be illegal, as it dramatically damages developmental health. Traditional cultures, especially Asian cultures, must be looking at America laughing, because they’ve always known that you can’t just eat an improperly prepared soy bean. In fact, they’ve made an art out of soy preparation that the Western world has ignored entirely…much like everything else. If you still think soy is a health food, then “baaaa” like a sheep, because you have fallen for yet another American nutrition myth. Learn more about the dangers of soy here: http://www.westonaprice.org/soy-alert.html.

6. Reduced Fat and Ultra-Pasteurized Dairy

Our family drinks about 3 gallons of milk per week…but we avoid pasteurized, reduced-fat dairy like the plague. You can read more about the kind of milk we drink- raw milk- on my “10 Best Foods to Eat” list, but know that raw milk and pasteurized milk are two entirely different foods. When big city populations exploded during the industrial revolution, the people needed to figure out how to get the food they knew was so essential- milk- to the cities, where cows could not graze. They began to cram cows into small areas of land, where grass could not be sustained. Cows were living in their own crap, eating food industry bi-products and waste. They were sick, full of bacteria, and producing milk laden with the disease. When Luis Pasteur discovered how a heating process (pasteurization) could kill harmful bacteria and organisms, he won the Nobel prize. Alas, the citi-folk could drink milk and not die of tuberculosis and other deathly bacterial diseases. While I do believe Pasteur probably deserved the prize because of the role pasteurization has had in keeping people alive, it is sad that so many people ignored that the process would alter the milk in a way that would destroy the beneficial nutrients and make it destructive to human health.

Not only have we ruined milk with pasteurization, but we have had to remove the “harmful” fat from it as well, and alas today we have the watery white liquid called reduced fat, ultra-pasteurized milk, which is what most Americans consume as “dairy”. Pasteurization and ultra pasteurization adulterates milk proteins, destroys vitamins and minerals, and kills the enzymes that make it digestible. This lack of enzymes make it very difficult for the body to digest the milk sugar (lactose), therefore causing digestive distress or “lactose intolerance” for many. To reduce fat in milk, the fat is extracted, highly heated and oxidized into a powder, then blasted back into the milk so that it still looks like milk, but doesn’t have the dreaded “fat grams”. As a result, this “reduced fat” product contains oxidized fat and cholesterol, which are actually the only fats proven to cause heart disease. The fat and cholesterol that existed in the pre-reduced-fat milk was not oxidized and actually was the type of fat that benefits heart health. If you want to cause inflammation and clog your arteries with those oxidized fat and cholesterol molecules, then keep choosing the reduced-fat dairy. Visit www.realmilk.com to learn more.

7. MSG (Non-Homemade Soup, sauce mixes, etc.)

You’ve heard of MSG, but do you really know what that is? “Following the Second World War, food companies also discovered monosodium glutamate (MSG), a food ingredient the Japanese had invented in 1908 to enhance food flavors, including meat-like flavors. Humans actually have receptors on the tongue for glutamate. It is the protein in food that the human body recognizes as meat. Any protein can be hydrolyzed to produce a base containing free glutamic acid or MSG. When the industry learned how to make the flavor of meat in the laboratory, using inexpensive proteins from grains and legumes, the door was opened to a flood of new products including bouillon cubes, dehydrated soup mixes, sauce mixes, TV dinners and condiments with a meaty taste. “Homemade” soup in most restaurants begins with a powdered soup base that comes in a package or can and almost all canned soups and stews contain MSG, often found in ingredients called hydrolyzed proteins. The fast food industry could not exist without MSG and artificial meat flavors to make “secret” sauces and spice mixes that beguile the consumer into eating bland and tasteless food.” (2)

Here is another pathetic example of how we turned a nourishing, time-honored tradition into an adulterated mess. Almost any soup you buy in a store or restaurant is made with time-cutting meat-mimicking powder stocks, which are devoid of any nutritional value. Skip the soup unless you know it was made with a real homemade stock!

I don’t think I need to go on with this one…or maybe I do. Hamburger meat is usually made from sick, old commercial dairy cows…yuck. Other “meats” from these joints are mostly fillers made with mysterious “parts” of pulverized chickens and other animals…yuck. Fries and fried foods are fried in partially hydrogenated non-food oils like cottonseed oil…who knows how long that grease has been sitting there frying thousands of different peoples’ meals- maybe years…yuck! The baked bread and cake products are generally made from highly processed corn and soy flours, corn syrup, and more hydrogenated non-food oils. The “vegetables” are cheap and most likely genetically modified plants grown with tons of chemical pesticides and artificial fertilizers (or “natural” fertilizer, aka the crap -literally- that is coming from the industrialized animal feed lots). The condiments and other foods are almost entirely made of soy flour, corn syrup and non-food products with virtually no nutritional benefit…yuck! Why waste the calories?! Don’t buy fuel for your body where you buy fuel for your car, and know that pretty much anything you could buy as “food” in a fast food joint is the trash left over from the industrial food industry….can you say, “YUCK!”

9. Table Salt and Salted Meats (Sodium Nitrates and Nitrites)

“I don’t eat salt because it raises my blood pressure.” Okay, I agree. Table salt, or iodized salt sucks. It is man-made and processed with sodium chloride and a high heat process which kills its vitamin and mineral content, then is usually packed with additives, anti-caking agents, and often-times aluminum. You definitely get the salty flavor, but this doesn’t do much for your health. Eliminating salt from the diet isn’t exactly a wise choice, though. Natural sea salt is packed with essential minerals and replenishes your body with the salt it needs to function properly. Mineral rich sea salt balances blood pressure, regulates digestion, and nourishes the adrenal glands. The best salt to buy is Celtic sea salt grown in the northern regions of France or Brittany. It will have a grey color to it. This is usually available at a good grocery store or health food store.

As far as salt-cured meats (sodium nitrates and nitrites), these “salts” often cause digestive distress, particularly pertaining to colon health, and may be a major contributor to colon cancer.

10. Commercially Produced Meat and Animal Foods

I used to be a vegetarian, and for some time, a vegan. Unfortunately it took years of illness, injury, and study to learn that vegetarianism and veganism are not ideal for optimum human health. At the same time, one unfortunate glance at the way commercial meat is raised and produced will most likely make you cry and proclaim that you will never again eat animal products. It is shameful and disgusting. Here is a not-so-harsh source to learn more about the issue in cartoon form: http://www.themeatrix.com. Not only is industrial meat production a sad story, but the resulting product usually contains toxins, antibiotics, artificial hormones, and is nutritionally inferior to the natural, pastured, humanely-raised version.

hello mr smith wow thankyou this was very informative i have gout really bad and was wondering if you might investigate the fooods that are high in purine and maby do a list of those thankyou for your time

Mr. Smith is probably a reference to Canadian chef Michael Smith, who posted a link to your article via Twitter. (That’s how I found it.)

Great article– I especially liked the point on soy, which has been pedaled in North America as a superfood, especially by the vegan and vegetarian communities.

On a larger note, many of your points touch on the misconceptions prevalent within American society (I would argue these are equally prevalent in Canadian society.), and this stems from the incredible power of lobby groups. It’s truly terrifying how much influence these organizations can have on policy, even if they are spreading lies that could have serious adverse affects on the population.

"It’s not because I don’t have a routine or a good work ethic or that I’m an ill-disciplined procrastinator" Malaika, I wish I could say the same! In my darker moments I fear "ill-disciplined procrastinator" sums me up completely. Only every now and then I get an idea – or a tight deadline – and suddenly I'm on fire!

Thank you for the well-written article. I agree 100% (and I have tried for years to convince my North-American raised friends to see all these and more – I have been raised in Europe :)) – however, I would LOVE if you could add on each point what *should* we eat.

You mentioned butter (instead of margarine) and sea salt (for the table salt).
However – where is one supposed to get the non-pasteurized milk?! My family will do almost anything for that milk – we’ve been raised with a cow in grandpa’s backyard and we drank the milk freshly milked; to this day there is *nothing* that tastes better than that milk!

Also – for the oils – which one am I supposed to use?
For soy – it’s not all bad (as you say) – which soy products are still good for my health?

It’s been a while since I’ve seen such stark evidence of scientific illiteracy laced through nearly every paragraph in one article. For whatever snippets of truth you’ve sprinkled in here, they’re hugely outweighed by an enormous ignorance of organic chemistry and endocrinology and nutrition.

Do you? My mother is a well respected physician and I work (and run this site) through her medical practice. Thank you for your kind words. :/ I usually do not approve comments like this on my site (a be nice policy, or a respectful argument), but I think maybe some of my followers will want to respond.

Most doctors have little or no training in nutrition. They are trained to know which drugs to use for for whatever ails you. Talk to a nutritionist and they will back up what is in this article. The diet plan I am following, which is designed by a nutritionist, agrees with everything in here.

I was just curious as to what YOU eat, since this is all good advice of things to avoid. You could look up everything that was mentioned in the list and see for yourself what these foods do to our bodies! Very mouthy and distrespectful of you to get on this site and throw out such a stupid comment. If you don’t agree with this information then just pass it by, you don’t need to be on here! With all the fast food commercials and push to eat processed crap from the grocery stores, this information is welcomed and needed.

In the 1930’s, Dr. Weston A Price wrote a book called “Nutrition & Physical Degeneration”. It is a wonderful read and extremely detailed. No doctor has disputed his findings that a western diet of processed foods including white flour and sugar cause malnutrition and physical degeneration in the body.

Can you point me to the articles/studies that document why being vegan is bad? I’m recently became a vegan and feel great since making the change. Other than calcium deficiencies, I have not heard any other ‘bad’ stuff about it.

During my junior year of undergraduate work I studied comparative nutrition extensively and found that even the writers of the most pro-vegan/vegetarian texts admitted that such a diet will end in Vitamin B-12 deficiency and essential fatty acid deficiency. They almost always suggested that pregnant women consume fish and all people supplement with vitamin B-12 (because the best sources for humans of sufficient b-12 are in red meat). I think that alone suggests that this diet is not sustainable for a healthy human body. In my practice I have VERY few people who can even metabolically handle a high carbohydrate diet, which veganism is entirely. I also personally have issues with the unsustainability of veganism. Although arguments are made that meat is what depletes the earth’s soil and fertility and pollutes the environment, I argue that this is only true for commercially raised meat. I also argue that plant foods contribute equally to the pollution and soil depletion because of GMO plants and the industrial production of vegetarian food “products”. Traditional farming of animals actually contributes to soil fertility and improved air quality (when done right.) I can say that my personal plea is to learn about this and be open to the arguments to veganism. I destroyed my health by being a vegan and vegetarian, and at a very young age. Here is a page with a list of articles I recommend looking into:http://www.westonaprice.org/about-the-foundation/vegetarian-tour

One can be a very healthy vegetarian if one educates themselves about how to do it. I was taught how to eat healthily and humanely by a Virgo Brahmin Hindu scientist. Virgo = detail oriented. Scientist = facts and verified findings. Brahmin Hindu = 2000+ years of family history of being totally vegetarian. He taught me what to eat, what not to eat and how to combine ingredients and spices to give my body what it needs.

If one ‘just eats vegetables’, then of course one would destroy their health. However, if one is thoughtful about what they put in their bodies, what they ‘fuel’ their bodies with, then they can maintain their health and avoid many problems that are associated with eating meat (and especially American dairy= poison!). I do eat eggs from backyard chickens and dairy from family goats.

Not eating meat is not the same as being a vegetarian. “Picky eaters” or faux-vegetarians, make it difficult for strict vegetarians because we are always being offered fish or chicken or soup made with chicken or beef stock “because my daughter is a vegetarian and she eats (fill in the blank)!” I would counter with “Your daughter is just a picky eater and calls herself a vegetarian because that is more socially acceptable.” but I’m not about hurting feelings, so I just smile and graciously decline whatever faux-getarian dish being offered.

So, saying that choosing to be a vegetarian is choosing to destroy your health is a bit harsh, and not true for many of us who are living proof that a vegetarian diet is more than adequate to maintain health.

I totally agree with this. Healthy vegetarianism is absolutely possible, but is also difficult to achieve. I have concluded through my studies that it is not possible to be a fully nourished vegan. There is no conclusive evidence, though, that a healthy vegetarian diet is better than a healthy traditional omnivorous diet. Most traditional cultures thrived on animal foods, and the only vegetarian cultures that thrived consumed a fair share of properly prepared egg and dairy foods.

As someone who has found incredible improvements in her health since making the change to a mostly vegan diet, I’m pretty horrified by what you wrote about how you “destroyed your health” by becoming vegetarian/vegan. It is entirely possible to be vegan and eat french fries and soda as your main diet. It’s easy to eat junk and destroy your body with or without animal products. As for it being unsustainable, that’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard about it. I read some of your references as posted above and find them extremely biased and full of false assumptions, referencing other sources which are more of the same. You said, “I also argue that plant foods contribute equally to the pollution and soil depletion because of GMO plants and the industrial production of vegetarian food “products” Organic farming methods including permaculture and small scale farming are entirely different than the destructive monoculture methods which do use the chemical agents and GMO’s. Organic farming methods actually improve soil fertility over time. Feeding the current number of people who eat meat is impossible using traditional farming techniques btw…

The point is, if you eat organic, whole foods and are knowledgeable about nutrition, you can be extremely healthy on a vegan diet, simultaneously contributing to (or at least not reducing) the health of the planet. I have done a fair bit of research myself, and have never found anything that is in animal products that I can’t get from vegan sources. And if I’m lazy, I’ll happily take a multi-vitamin or B-12 supplement. If that’s the worst of my problems from being vegan, that’s significantly better than the health problems I had on the Standard American Diet (SAD).

I’m really happy you found such improvements on health! I would only encourage more education when considering conception, pregnancy, and lactation. Obviously I disagree with some things here, but I think we also agree on many many things. In response to sustainably providing meat for the population, you might want to discover Polyface Farms in Virginia- farmer Joel Salatin. His model of sustainable and organic animal farming produces many, many times more calories per acre than even the best plant farms, and his pasture rotation method fertilizes and improves the soil from where it started.

Most of the points you make are important, and worth thinking about. However, why do you have to stoop to the tabloid media-level and generalize and hugely exaggerate the points? Moreover, there is plenty of inaccurate and speculative information there. What I’m also concerned is that all “references” are to Weston A Price Foundation, while I’d like to see actual scientific evidence – there IS some of that out there, too. While the foundation has a noble cause, it has not updated its some of its recommendations despite contradictory evidence, so I would take anything they say with a grain of (natural, sea 🙂 salt.

Thank you for your comments. I think that your points raised are somewhat hypocritical. You are reading a blog, not a scientific journal. If you are expecting “as is” information from a blog to be acceptable for use in scientific circles, then the problem begins with your education, not mine. I’m “journalizing” about articles I’ve read, which are often from the Weston Price Foundation. In their defense, they offer peer reviewed and scientifically supported studies, etc., for almost any article that needs it. I like to refer people to longer articles if I am not offering the original information in my own article. Considering that I do have an extensive education in this field (you can read my about page), I ask that you respect my ability to assess all information available on nutritional topics. What I don’t understand about people who have commented with arguments like this is that you are not supporting your point of view with any particular argument. You are just giving general attacks to the information I’ve collected here. Please let me know what you believe is incorrect, and I’d be happy to approach things on an actual subject by subject basis. What is speculative? What is exaggerated? What is inaccurate?

Let me try to offer some specifics; I don’t have time – nor the inclination really, as I think it’s an important subject but suffers from sensationalizing in this post – to “debunk” all questionable claims (which does by no means mean they all are questionable). But for example:

1) Not all soft drinks have high-fructose corn syrup – in fact, even Coke uses regular sugar in many countries. Just so happens the USA is not one of them, for many reasons, which cannot all be pinned on e.g. Coke.

2) Not all soft drinks use phosphoric acid either. See above.

3) In terms of generalizations and exaggerations, all-encompassing statements such as “aspartame may also trigger conditions like brain tumors, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, parkinson’s disease, alzheimer’s, mental retardation, lymphoma, birth defects, fibromyalgia, and diabetes” are really fear-mongering and spreading FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) – granted, much of that is counter-FUD while the manufacturers claim no ill effects whatsoever, but the truth is not quite that dangerous either. More examples of exaggerations and generalizations can be found from the following quotes:
– “poison elixirs, decaying the body”
– “soy food is poisonous unless it is consumed after a long fermenting process”
– “so men, drink soy milk if you want boobs”
– “Hamburger meat is usually made from sick, old commercial dairy cows”
– “Fries and fried foods are fried in partially hydrogenated non-food oils like cottonseed oil”

4) “Trans fatty acids in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are the main cause of type 2 diabetes” – again, completely unsubstantiated as the _main_ cause; for example, there is plenty of Type 2 Diabetes in areas and countries where trans fats are forbidden (e.g. Denmark). If they are the “main” cause for diabetes, one would expect dramatic decreases, no?

5) “soy food is poisonous unless it is consumed after a long fermenting process”, and then pointing out that “Traditional cultures, especially Asian cultures, must be looking at America laughing, because they’ve always known that you can’t just eat an improperly prepared soy bean” is contradictory and not true. Most soy products consumed in Asia are, in fact, unfermented (http://www.theveganrd.com/2011/03/soyfoods-in-asia-how-much-do-people-really-eat.html)

Again, my point is not to debunk all the claims, I am merely against generalizations and exaggerations as they are dangerous and do not help anyone’s cause. The fact that there is even a documented case or cases of _someone_ say, using sick cows for hamburger meat does NOT meant they ALL are sick.

I think this is more of a fair argument, thank you! Instead of continuing on with my responses, I’ll leave it at this and maybe address more in future articles. Maybe others will want to comment. Again, this is a blog, so much of my writing here is emotionally driven, hence my awesome soundbites you’ve quoted above- haha! My high school students especially love when I say soy milk will give boys boobs! Of course they understand I don’t believe that they will grow breasts if they drink soy milk, but phytoestrogens in soy foods offer the possibility of a hormone response that most teenage boys do not want! My effective phrase helps them look into what they are eating and make better decisions about their diet.

It’s called, reading between the lines. You have to be your own filter. I’ve seen some fast food commercials that swear their food is ‘healthy’ or a ‘healthy option’, it is not, so should you get on their website and debunk their commercial and have a debate?? I think if everyone made smart choices for themselves and consumed the foods that made them feel healthy there should be no arguments made. I for one appreciate reading ALL information about food and when I come across something that raises my eyebrows I look into it further. It’s up to you to make the choices that are right for you, this is merely someone who cares about what we are eating and wanting to get the information to us. If you take everything literally it would make you very confrontational.

Ted McaleerJune 14, 2012Make that 4… Anaheim is too far from Spain for me this year, that and our lovely global crisis! Thank you, Paul, for taking time to lay things out so clearly. I appreciate the time you take to do that and it helps me so much. Some of this stuff I do instinctively, the other stuff, things I’ll need to work on, but reading your blogs gives me the basis for a game plan. Thank you sincerely.

I am afraid you are a little off on the sea salt vs. table salt. Salt (sea or table) *is* sodium chloride (NaCl), both ions (Na+ and Cl-) are essential to basic nerve and muscle function. Table salt is mined — it is deposits of sea salt from millions of years ago, so not man-made. And, as salt is mineral, 300 degree heat doesn’t “kill” anything. The ions form a crystal that disassociate when dissolved in water (brine) for processing (heated to evaporate the water) and later in your digestive tract or food.

Sea salt has other trace minerals that add flavor or color but not necessarily more nutrition… table salt does have those trace minerals removed. If you are eating a balanced diet you would be getting adequate amounts of these minerals (calcium, magnesium, potassium) and the sea salt is not going to fill a void.

Yes, table salt may include iodine, which protects against iodine deficiency disorder which may result in thyroid goiters (masses on the neck that may press against the esophagus and trachea), developmental delays, and birth defects. There are 1 billion people that are iodine deficient but it is not generally a problem in the US because of iodized salt and improved diet (compared to 1900).

The issue with salt is to not eat too much of it, table or sea is not going to make a difference.

Definitely some great information. The stuff about pricing couldn’t be more true no matter what industry your in. I think that pricing is just more complicated when your talking about e-business because there are so many pricing options as opposed to traditional products and services.

Hi. So I assume that olive oil, peanut oil, walnut oil, and/or sesame oil is ok then (depending on the cuisine). Question though, I sometimes make baked goods and olive oil just doesn’t work to coat the pan. So I spray a little bit of canola oil (I have a misto, I do not use Pam) because it’s flavor neutral, and I get far less fat with that then if I coated the pan with butter. So what do you use for that?

These oils you mentioned (except olive oil) are actually very fragile oils and should be eaten raw or lightly heated. I do not believe that butter is ever bad, unless it is from commercial sources. Butter from grassfed cows- rich in yellow color- is full of fat soluble vitamins like A and D and help the body properly assimilate other nutrients. The fat in butter will not make you fat. I always coat pans with butter. 🙂

I also love to use coconut oil (organic cold pressed) in baking when I don’t have butter handy, or am making food for my mom who doesn’t do dairy (even raw, sadly… I’m hoping maybe our sheep’s milk will be better?) and it works VERY well, and tastes delicious:)

This was almost all a load or crap and simply meant to sell a probably worthless book. Japanese people are probably the most healthy people on the planet and their children grow up on tofu (ie. soy). Being lactose intolerant has nothing to do with previous exposure to pasteurized milk. In fact, there is more calcium in a cup of non-fat milk than there is in a cup of full fat milk. Less feat means more room for more calcium.

Sean, your lack of education and disrespect toward me is almost not worth responding to, but I’ll just respond to a few things. The traditional Japanese diets include relatively small amounts fermented soy (tofu), a process that breaks down the indigestible phytic acid and neutralizes the effects of phytoestrogens. Lactose TOLERANCE is a genetic mutation resulting from generations of farmers consuming milk protein. Most people cannot digest heated milk because it kills the enzyme lactase which is needed to digest the milk sugar, lactose. Lactose without lactase is irritable to most, and is what leads to “lactose intolerance”- not to be confused with a true milk allergy- which is an allergy to the protein. Nonfat milk will only have more calcium if it is synthetically added. Calcium is dependent on Vitamin D, and Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, hence fat-free milk with Vitamin D and Calcium is a useless non-food. Also, it is full of oxidized fat and cholesterol (the only type of fat/cholesterol that is detrimental to health), created by the process of oxidizing the milk fat (cream) into a powder and blasting it back into milk and homogenizing it to make it seem “creamy”. This renders this “milk” “fat-free”, yet it contains the worst kind of fat there is.

Wow! When people have to expunge such nasty words it is a clear indication of many things. Primarily, that they’re unintelligent. Secondarily, that they’re full of pent up anger and rage. Both of these conditions are often caused by nutritional malfunctions. They’re deficient in all kinds of delicate nutrients. They definitely need B VITAMINS STAT! They have been cooking a LOT of Japanese food on aluminum woks- the aluminum has perforated their brains and put the into a premature induced rage full form of Alzheimer’s. I’m NOT kidding or being disrespectful. Then eventually they got a nonstick wok- those crazy chemicals gave them Dow Brain which takes what brain tissue is left after aluminum damage and rots the rest away, only leaving the victim with enough faculties to spew mindless profane insults on people’s blogs all day.

Just curious, my daughter is allergic to dairy, eggs and nuts. She does have soy yogurt and drinks rice milk. Any recommendations to the soy yogurt? Kids sometimes have very particular tastes but we are always up for trying something new to add to the mix. Advice / recommendations?
Thank you.

Real allergies are always tough, and it seems they always come in multiples with children. This isn’t a mystery for me, as this points to underdevelopment or dysfunction of the small intestine which has led to food molecules leaking into the gut and the body reacting to them as antigens- creating these allergies. This, of course, is not always the case. ANYWAY, I would ask if you need yogurt?? Probiotics are available in non-dairy forms. There is coconut yogurt available…you didn’t mention coconut as an allergy. Some who are allergic to cow milk are fine with goat milk, actually, so there is also goat milk yogurt. If I think of anything else, I’ll come back on this. 🙂

Roz,
Drop by any night at dinnertime and cringe your booty off. I’ll be chopping up a medium rare, bloody hunk of steak. I’ve been doing this all of my life, I’m now 58, and my Doctor says that I have the body of a 30 yr. old healthy man. Oh, and that Monosodium Glutamate makes that steak taste terrific. My I.Q. is 172, (not too dumb), and I love one of the dumbest foods in the world. Go figure.

John, I’d love to join you with your large, rare piece of steak…as this is actually on my 10 BEST things to eat list (one of the latest posts). MSG- not so much, but I’m glad you’re so healthy. MSG is more related to senior issues- so think about it. 🙂

Good girl, Auntie Pam! Once I was in a nursery and a lady was giving a little 1 1/2 year old some blue gatorade. The look on my face must have been horror because the lady giving it to her was her mom and suddenly she looked at me trying to explain why she was giving it to her. I promise I didn’t try to make her feel guilty, it was just a natural reaction to seeing a child being fed something neon-colored.

I love the fact you follow Dr. Mercola. I am a full believer when it comes to him~with the exception of whey….but that’s a subject for another day.

I would like to add to #2 above- aspartame. For more information of where aspartame came from you can watch the movie Sweet Misery or go to the website http://www.aspartamekills.com (the address says it all).

[…] A salad made up of non-organic delicate vegetables and fruits will be loaded with carcinogenic (meaning cancer-causing) pesticides. I could go on and on about why you need to avoid pre-made salad dressings- including the flavor packets that you add your own oil, vinegar or sour cream to. But long story short is that no matter what, that stuff always has processed vegetable oils and some form of MSG (monosodium glutamate, or free glutamic acid). Refer to this post on 10 Dumbest Foods To Eat to learn more about those dietary dangers. […]

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